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Praetorium Honoris

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Kid Stuff

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I don't like doing political posts, only when I get riled up do I do that. Yeah, I was pretty riled up yesterday. But enough of that for the time being. I need to stay away from television sets. Bad influence on me.

When I was a kid, I was a big dinosaur fan. Do little boys still like dinosaurs? I did know some girls when I was a kid who liked dinosaurs, but it was more of a boy thing. While looking back on it I think it's cool that some girls liked dinosaurs, even though I thought all girls were pretty yucky back then.

Yeah, I grew out of the "girls are yucky" phase. Still like dinosaurs though, and yes, I've seen all of the Jurassic Park movies save the latest. That one's on my list.

Are they realistic? Who cares, they have dinosaurs. And yes, the books (of which there were two) were much better than the movies.

I miss Michael Crichton, the man knew how to tell a good story.

Later in my youth, thanks to NASA, I was all about the space program and astronomy.

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Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon when I was 16, it was a pretty big deal and it still boggles my mind every time I look to the skies and see the moon. Americans have walked its surface and will again someday. Or we will perish on this planet, it might be millions of years in the future but it's a certainty. We travel to the stars or we perish. Unless someone comes up with an idea to refuel the sun. Possible? Who knows. Folks in the 19th Century thought flying was a pipe dream. Look at us now!

Which brings me to the other thing I loved as a kid...

Aircraft, specifically fighter aircraft, especially this one -

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At some point in my formative years I saw pictures of the World War I flying aces and their aircraft. Of course, Manfred von Richthofen and his red triplane stood out. In the first grade when all the other little boys wanted to be firemen, I wanted to be a fighter pilot.

Bad eyes, discovered in the sixth grade, put the kibosh on that dream.

Ah well, I could still read about them, and later I had the privilege of working on the mighty F-4 Phantom. So that was pretty cool and I cherish those memories.

And none of those other little boys in my class became firemen either.

Ah well.

I'm still a little kid at heart.

Though girls are most definitely not yucky anymore.



24 comments:

  1. "Here's the World War I flying ace"....... always enjoyed Charles Schultz and Snoopy vis-a-vis the Baron.

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    1. Same here. Peanuts has always been a favorite cartoon.

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  2. The internet thinks that the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is about a four hour drive west of you. I heard of it, but we never got around to getting there.
    https://oldrhinebeck.org/

    Oddly, we are twelve miles closer to it than you are. I will have to do some research with The Hot Chick, and maybe we will have a NY airplane road trip before this summer wraps up.

    And thanks to Nylon12 I have a certain earworm playing in my head.

    "Little kid at heart." I hope to maintain that attitude and not turn into a GOG, (Grouchy Old Guy) there are things and events to get as you said, "riled up about," but there are also lot of things that I still look at through the eyes of a little kid and think, "This is just awesome."

    Another Bravo Zulu to you.

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    1. That is indeed a place I mean to get to one of these days. I want to try that whole "open cockpit biplane" thing which is doable there for about $100. We shall see!

      Thanks John.

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  3. Definitely stay away from tv news. It is bad for your health and is full of lies.

    About girls, some girls are still yucky.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

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    1. I'm Yucky...and I like 'em!

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    2. Yay!

      (By the way, you're most certainly not yucky. I mean, you like dinosaurs!)

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    3. In regards to my comment: " About girls, some girls are still yucky. ", I had one " girl " in particular and one 'class' of girls in mind.

      Paul

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  4. Funny, weird recurring dream as a kid was being at Grandma's house, in Porterville, CA, and having a T-rex attack it and having to go out in the back yard and use a bazooka against it. Must have been one weird old movie that got that dream stuck, maybe a fusion of some dino movie and "Them" (the one about the giant ants.)

    Girls were definitely yucky, and then they weren't. But worse, They (the girls) considered me... a friend. (Insert Sad Face here) Nothing is worse than being a hyperhormonal teenage boy who contains more theoretical knowledge of (that stuff) and being... a friend. The class shoulder to cry on. Must have gone through 10 tons of ice for... well, let's just say... ah, well, it suuuuuuuucked.

    And then the dam broke, so to speak and life is much better. Some girls are still yucky, but now I am secure enough to make fun of them. So there. Cooties right back at ya, gurls….

    But, if a girl wants to be treated like "one of the guys" then she should not resort to being butthurt when the guys treat her like one. No using quivering lip or tears or other guuurly ways when she doesn't get her way.

    Now, ladies are Ladies and to be treated as Ladies, even if they can deal with yucky stuff that makes real Men barf on their own shoes, while still being ladies. Ah. They are great, the ladies, not the guys barfing on their shoes, we make fun of guys who barf on their shoes.

    Ladies, by the way, can do guy stuff and still be ladies. There is a difference between being a gurl wanting to be 'one of the guys' and a lady doing guy stuff. (Just like there is a difference between a booy wanting to be 'one of the gals' and a man doing girl stuff. Big difference, huge. One is a source of ridicule amongst guys (and a lot of girls, from what I hear) and the other is just cool. Marine doing tea-party with his daughter, Biker doing cake decorating for fun (totally allowed and respected if doing it for money no matter what.) Still men being men doing 'lady stuff.' Hey, I don't make the rules, these are still the unwritten rules that control civilization.

    I will now attempt to extricate my size 13EEEs from my mouth. I think the right big toe is digging into my esophagus, need to trim that nail...

    And dinosaurs and planes in general are still cool as cool can be. So are ladies. Especially ones that like dinosaurs and planes...

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  5. Kids stuff, indeed. I've worn glasses since the second grade. However, it wasn't until my pr-enlistment eye exam that they said "NO" to me flying tax payer owned aircraft.

    I have been particularly struck by two photos. One is of German Ace Eric Hartmann looking at Friendship 7 while here in the U.S. during the 1960's, and the other is of Niel Armstrong shaking hands with Igor Sikorsky.

    I would hazard a guess that we all found out that the "yucky" girls are that way on the inside, heartless and souless.

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    1. Well, perhaps those that are truly yucky, not those "yucky" in the eyes of a first or second grader.

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  6. The Red Baron Tri-plane was one of the first models I built as a young teen. Alas, I wasn't as good a pilot as the Red Baron.

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    1. I do believe that most pilots can say that (though most pilots will refuse to admit that).

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  7. I was a dinosaur junkie, too, Sarge. Read all the books by Roy Chapman Andrews, along with anything else I could find in the BookMobile when it came by school. And my first "girlfriend" in grade school was a dino junkie, too. I think kids are still into dinosaurs, at least they still sell all kinds of dinosaur-themed clothing for toddlers.

    I built dozens (hundreds?) of plastic model airplanes, but mostly WWII and Century Series fighters. I, too, wanted to be a "Jet Fighter Pilot" when I was growing up. My favorite baby sitter was going out with, and eventually married, a real, live, gen-you-ine USAF Fighter Pilot!

    And he buzzed our house in an F-102 Delta Dagger one afternoon. We got a call from Mary Jane (my baby sitter) one day telling us to make sure we were out in the front yard between 3:00 and 3:30 because "There's a surprise coming".

    Got treated to about 20 minutes of her beau doing things like rolls and Cuban 8's to amuse us. Talk about a thrilling experience for an 8-year old boy!

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    1. Now that's just plain awesome!

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    2. First time I'd ever heard an afterburner, and smelled JP-4!

      To me, it was Plane awesome, and was one of those defining moments in my life. I'm not sure where he was based, but I'm pretty sure he came out of the Illinois ANG base at O'Hare. At least his approach and departure would indicate "Chicago".

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    3. Nothing like the roar of an afterburner and the scent of JP-4. Spent some of my time as a young adult doing just that, and I remember it fondly!

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  8. Girls as in "grandgirls" are pretty good, as I look at 'em grow.
    Women - marvelous!
    Being a late bloomer, I came to have a certain fondness for the female personage at Itazuke AB, Kyushu, Japan. It seems I wasted some certain amount of time in college, infected with the "sputnik" craze and trying to get over ten years of "Buzz Corey and the Space Cadets" and, of course, "Flash Gordon" as portrayed by Buster Crabbe. I thank the Lord every day for the former Phyllis Jean Taylor (of Live Oak FL fame). She became Jeanie - the love of my life and the secret key to now having some "grand girls - Abigail and Ava. YAAAY for them!
    Every time I went mach 2 I wondered if Buster or Buzz was up there somewhere.

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    1. You know they were watching, nodding their heads and grinning ear to ear!

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  9. My favorite has always been the Daspletosaurus, the short stocky member of the Tyrannosauradae. I have a fine bunch of neices that I am very fond of, and all of them like dinosaurs. As do the grand nieces!

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